Alum Andy Diep screens Queer Screen Pitch Off! winning film

21 February 2023

UPDATE 8/3/2023: 'Happy New Year, Ms. Luna' wins the Audience Award for Best Short at Queer Screen's 30th Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023! Congratulations Andy and Team!

Ms Luna wins MGFF2023 Audience Award!

Directed by UTS FASS graduate Andy Diep, Happy New Year, Ms. Luna will have it's world premiere in February at the Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 as part of the Trans and Gender Diverse Shorts series at Dendy Cinema Newtown.

Happy New Year, Ms. Luna directed by UTS FASS graduate Andy Diep (M/Media Arts Production, 2018) will have it's world premiere at Queer Screen's Mardi Gras Film Festival 2023 as part of Trans and Gender Diverse Shorts at Dendy Cinema Newtown.

Ms. Luna was the winner of the Queer Screen Pitch Off! competition in 2022, scoring $10,000 in project funding.

In 2023, Ms. Luna will have it's world premiere with the festival that helped to create it, screening as part of Trans and Gender Diverse Shorts, at Dendy Cinema Newtown, with the Mardi Gras Film Festival (Queer Screen) in February 2023.

A young person dressed as a school girl looks at herself in the mirror

Synopsis: Luna, a young transfeminine woman, attends her family’s annual Chinese New Year gathering for the first time since her transition. Already prepared to be compared to her other cousins for her career choices and lack of motivation, she must also explain to her conservative family her decision to transition into being a woman at the request of her mother.

Happy New Year, Ms. Luna is based on UTS Media Arts Production graduate Andy Diep's (they/them) own imaginings of what it might be like to come out to their own family and how the ensuing conversations might play out, and is inspired by the films of Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and directors of the Taiwanese New Wave.

The film stars newcomer Victoria Ho (a non-actor), Renee Lim (Please Like Me), Monica Sayers (True Crimes), and a large cast comprised of Sydney-based Asian actors.

Happy New Year Ms Luna BTS photo — Behind-the-scenes photo: Tyler V. Dias

Having been part of the UTS Masters program, Andy graduated in 2017 with their short film Tokophobia. Through that film and other capstone film projects, they met several collaborators who they still work with today including Sebastian Reatagui (Digital Imaging Technician, Mad Max: Furiosa), Karen Marie Farnsworth (Script Supervisor, No Ordinary Love), Stephanie Todd (1st AD), Yvonne Chen (Cantonese Dramaturg), Tyron Seeto (2nd Unit DP, Steadicam Operator), Diamond Tat, Vivian Duong (Lighting) and Lucky Chen (Gaffer) (all of which who are crew members on Happy New Year, Ms. Luna).

In 2018, Andy and a group of UTS graduates formed the "Trolley Department", a filmmaking collective that went on to work on Baro Lee's short film Hiruaerak (another UTS MAPs capstone). Executive Producer, Yingna Lu, is also a MAP graduate.

Happy New Year Ms Luna BTS photo 2 — Behind-the-scenes photo: Tyler V. Dias

Recalling their time studying at UTS, Andy says:

My UTS Masters was a launching pad for me to learn my craft, meet a wide variety of industry practitioners and find my voice, and I was encouraged to experiment with various forms of filmmaking through my coursework and capstone (including stitching together super-8 film and drawing directly onto film for my project work).
Through the program, I was able to find my circle and network with a group of friends who I still work closely with to this day, as well as discover my voice as a director.
Andy Diep (M/Media Arts Production, 2018)